Yesterday, March 17th, Apple premiered the iPhone 3.0 OS software. They have really stepped it up in this release, with over 100 new features for consumers. While no exact release date is set, Apple noted that it will be released sometime this summer. A beta version is available to developers immediately.

Cut, Copy, and Paste

I am very excited about this, many times I have needed to cut, copy, and paste content. This is something that was really hurting the reputation of the iPhone. It works like the magnifying glass, you double tap on a word, then a menu pops up asking you if you want to select, or unselect, from there, you can stretch the highlighted area to a larger selection, and cut, copy, and paste.

Spotlight

Spotlight is a new addition to the home screen. It appears as your left most home screen. Spotlight is a built in search application that will search through your entire iPhone. I am most excited to use this with SMS, Email, and best of all Contacts. What my hopes are, is I can use spotlight to make calls, so when I want to call someone, I can just scroll left, type the first few letters of the person I want to call, then click call! This would save me a lot of time scrolling through my massive contacts list.

Landscape Keyboard (All Default Apps)

Let me start off by saying, my girlfriend is a text fanatic (I am slowly becoming one!), she is the reason I now have an unlimited text plan. So I am very excited I will be able to text with the larger landscape keyboard. This will make typing quicker and more accurate!

Google Maps w/ Turn by Turn and 3rd Party Map API

Finally, the default Maps application by Google is going to support turn-by-turn directions. This is awesome, the current Maps app is great, but it sucks at directions. What excites me most about this, is that Apple is know going to allow developers to design turn-by-turn direction apps. This is huge, companies like Garmin, Tom/Tom, and Dash can now design iPhone versions of there popular GPS software.

The Rest

While I could write a paragraph on each new feature, I wont bore you all with that, so here are the rest of the new features that I am not going to spotlight:

Attach multiple pictures to emails.

MMS, allowing you to send audio, pictures, and other content.

Forward SMS support.

New Voice Memo App, allowing you to record voice notes and trim them.

Added details to Stocks.

Note Sync via iTunes.

iCal with gCal support.

Bluetooth Stereo Support (I hope this will lead to in car bluetooth iPhone audio support.)

Push Notifications.

Subscription App Support.

Additional Screenshots

There are over 100 new features in all. I am very excited for this release, and hope it is released in early summer so I can get my hands on it. It is available to developers today, but you have to pay $100.00 to be in the developer program, and get a beta release of the OS.

What features are you excited about? Anything you didn’t see that makes you sad?